Heartworm
Heartworm is infected via mosquitoe bites. The mosquito carries the heartworm to your pets. The time lag between the initial infestation and reproduction by adult worms living in the heart is 6-7 months in dogs. Heartworm is entirely preventable and without proper medical treatment, your pet can die from heartworm. Heartworms have now been found in all fifty states. They live as adults in the pulmonary arteries and heart.
This disease can be diagnosed through clinical signs, blood testing and x-rays. Depending on the stage that the disease is found, treatment may be possible. But, it is unlikely that you will detect obvious signs before the heartworm has infested your dog thoroughly. The worms grow larger and multiply, infesting the chambers on the right side of the heart and the arteries in the lungs. The first signs of heartworm may not manifest for a year after heartworm infection. The first sign is usually a soft cough that increases with exersion and exercise. Not a sign that may first alarm you and may seem unimportant at first. But the cough worsens, your dog will tire more easily, and your pet will start to seem weak and listless. With advancement their will be weight loss and your dog may possibly coughing up blood. Breathing becomes more difficult as the disease progresses.
It is a painful and awful way for your pets life to come to close especially since prevention is so easy. Recently this prevention has been made even more easy. There is currently a prevention step in the form of a six month injection rather than the monthly oral treatments.
